An Education
by MsCongeniality
Summary: Post-series. Robin and Amon talk. Written for athousandwinds in the Yuletide 2008 challenge.


Amon wasn't especially good at forced inactivity. By nature he was inclined to be working on something, though it was he who insisted on what Robin liked to refer to as their 'quiet time.' They had just relocated, and the two of them were laying low, sticking close to their lodgings until they had a better understanding of the flow of life there, of the movements of Solomon.

Robin seemed to fare much better during these periods, finding various means of occupying her mind and hands away from the press of the world around them. Her experience at the cloister seemed to serve her well; she was used to the quiet and seclusion and to finding her distractions where she could.

Currently, she was standing slightly to the side of the window, looking through the carefully angled blinds at the fenced yard below. He'd heard shouts coming sporadically through the day, presumably the result of athletics classes or recess at the school next door.

"Amon," she called out, quietly.

He looked up as she turned from the window. Her expression was neutral, betraying nothing, but her eyes were alight and inquisitive.

"Did you ever go to school?"

He paused before answering, genuinely taken by surprise at such a basic, and yet odd, question. "Of course," he finally replied. "School is mandatory in Japan."

Robin inclined her head slightly in response then turned back to the window. He saw her brow crease slightly as she watched the children below.

"What was it like?"

Amon knew, of course, that she had been raised by Solomon, but sometimes it was easy to forget just how unusual her upbringing had been. He hadn't ever really questioned whether or not she'd attended school. Apparently, she hadn't; at least not in a conventional sense. Frowning slightly, he considered his words before answering.

"Okay, I suppose. It was very ordered, in a way that my home life wasn't." He paused at this, taking another moment to consider before appending himself, "I liked that."

"Yes," she said, a small smile slipping across her features. "I imagine you would." She turned back towards him again. "You didn't finish it though. . . did you?"

He frowned, "What would make you think I hadn't?"

Robin tilted her head slightly; not confused, but with an air of someone pointing out the obvious. "You joined Solomon."

"I did," he conceded. "But I was of more use to them with an education. It just didn't end with public high school or college, though I do have a diploma."

She didn't seem to react to that. Instead, she turned back to the window. The sound of a bell rang out, and the babble of voices from below increased in volume. Once it died down again, she spoke quietly.

"I always wanted to go to school."

"You had classes though, didn't you?"

Robin nodded, "I had plenty of classes, but most of the time I learned alone. When I did have a classmate, they were always older, and a hunter. Most of them weren't too interested in talking to a craft user."

"In fact," she continued, still watching the children below. "I never really spent any time with people my own age until I came to the STN-J."

Amon considered. In the time they'd been together, they had hardly stopped moving. While they'd gotten to know each other quite well, he never heard Robin ask for other company or imply that she needed peers. She was friendly enough, often smoothing over relations with the people he dealt with abruptly, but this conversation indicated something different.

"Perhaps," he said, finally. "Once we are able to settle, you could take a class."

Robin turned back to face him. She didn't say anything, she only looked at him in the way she had that let him know she was waiting for him to explain further.

"They have them, at smaller colleges or community centers. You don't have to be looking for a degree, you can just enroll for a single class. To see what it's like."

"Oh," she said quietly. A small, satisfied smile spread across her features. "I think I'd like that."

Amon nodded, providing a finality to the discussion and Robin appeared to take that as her cue to return to watching at the window. He noticed, however, that she continued to smile long after the conversation stopped.


End file.
